Hawke64

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Some environments are gorgeous, the encounter design and dialogues are less so. The dungeons usually circle back, so if you see a somewhat high opening near the entrance and can reach it, it will take you to the end. "It's the Death of Feudalism/I ain't no noble/It's Your Majesty". Dialogue options are not the game's strong side. The dialogue options are often disappointing. Face-stabbing everything is less so. No. 2. No. 3. Definitely no. Option #1 won by the virtue of the other 2 being worse. It was a few centuries before the "bio-something" became a thing. Galahad and the power of stealth. Note where the sword is. The creature of many eyes. Bug, Act 1 spoiler The NPC expressed the desire to fall on blades repeatedly which softlocked my playthrough The bed had no collision on top, but got a nice screenshot out of it. Curious what the horseshoes are made of if not iron. AI-generated art, somewhat erotic text Perceval. The only cheese here shall be mine. On a related note, the armour remains consistent between the bodytypes, which is welcome. Blessed be the columns. Bookshelves in ancient castles are the best place to store moonshine and raw meat. /s It amuses me that compromise is in the same category as corruption and cowardice. The snowy land of reskins. Fashion Souls it is not. The end-game

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I have finished the main story. Somewhere mid-Act 2, I irreversibly broke the progression due to the developers' brilliant idea to make an NPC's survival critical for the main quest (the next NPC would not spawn otherwise) and not give the player an indicator that it was so (no "the thread of prophecy is severed" message), while the said NPC very explicitly asked to be stabbed in the face repeatedly. Thus, 10 hours later, I completed 1 mandatory dungeon in the area, explored quite a lot, and in general was not anyhow inclined to reload, while hoping that there was an NPC-unrelated option to proceed, like it was in Act 1. On a somewhat related note, I admire that Obsidian games are quite resilient to the player's actions. So, after a few more hours and a few guides, I realised that I got stuck. I used the console to respawn the NPC, but it still led to a black screen in a cutscene a bit later. Thus, the only remaining option was just to activate the following quest, which I did. The journal description for the main quest did not update, but it went reasonably well otherwise - the in-game story proceeded and the next area became accessible. At that point I was getting quite tired, while the inhabitants of the final area were fairly spongy and extremely similar to the previously-encountered foes. So I decided to try running to the nearest settlement, asking where the McGuffin was, and going straight for it. After studying the fog-covered map and visiting one burnt down settlement which lacked any useful information, I decided to go to the largest roundish shape on the highest mountain. When I reached the door, the invisible friend helpfully pointed out that it was the point of no-return for the region. I was pleasantly surprised, hard-saved, and entered the dungeon. Every other room contained a locked fog door and a duo of mini-bosses, which made the progression slower. By that time, I was relying more on the bow (Robbie's bow which I never gave to the quest starter), than my daggers for the non-human boss battles, so it was more a matter of patiently head-shotting things and hiding, than actively running around. It was not the most exciting endeavour, but I got through and picked up the McGuffin. As I exited the dungeon, I pulled out the guide and cleared the dungeons required for the secret ending. Ironically, the triple-lock cave I had found earlier was the end-game dungeon (the quest journal still did not point to it). After a lot of chatting, I faced the final boss who went down easier than a random corpse eater in the final snowy area. The slides showed some of the outcomes for the regions and NPCs, though I remembered only a half of them. To summarise it, while the beginning and the QoL features are reasonably well-made, the quality falls as the game progresses and the narrative never truly grabs attention. Overall, it is a fun sandbox game and should one be satisfied with the first 20 or so hours, it should provide it. The most positive aspects are largely the accessibility ones - the controls are rebindable, the saving system is well made (several rotating auto- and quick saves of very reasonable size of 1-2MB), and there are difficulty options. The system requirements are as good as they can be for an open-world game, and Tainted Grail uses Unity instead of UE5 (may that unoptimised junk be sunsetted soon). There is a lot of exploration and it feels quite engaging in the first area, while the combat is surprisingly functional for the first-person camera. At the start, there are a lot of options for dealing with obstacles and freedom of movement. The visual style is appealing overall and the forest looks gorgeous. The range of abilities and their synergy with equipment provide a wide variety of builds. It is also incredibly convenient to be able to open the unlimited stash and fast travel at any point out of dungeons (there are 3 large open maps with smaller separate dungeons inside them). However, as the game progresses, the cracks start to show. The boss arenas teleport you to the middle, forcing you to start the battle in the Detected state, the main quest breaks without warning when you kill an NPC, the ground itself does not have collision boxes in some places (the Unstuck button usually helps; if it does not, there are console commands and reloading). In terms of balance, a random undead in the final area was hitting harder than the final boss. In terms of story, while the main plot is generally fine and leans towards environmentalism, the environmental storytelling and lore are lacking (I was pulling fresh fruit and alcoholic beverages from bookshelves in an ancient castle). Additionally, the drawback of having a lot of killable characters is that none of them can be central to the story and, in some cases, the range of dialogue options is baffling. The demographic of the human opponents is also puzzling, though the combination of the South-Asian PC who goes and gets things done and either incompetent or malicious NPCs amuses me.

I've tried again (not sure why I was logged out so soon) and the issue is still present. Clicking on the Email button did not work previously, so I have not tried this time.

(5 days to go). itch.ioGame industry hardship fund by Necrosoft Games and 109 ot...Game industry hardship fund: 127 items for $10.00While it does not address the underlying issues of job security and sustainable development (nor $200K can do much given the number of people affected), it is something and the games are quite decent (Lucah and its sequel are fantastic action games). I found these articles quite relevant and interesting: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/blockbuster-games-are-in-the-grip-of-a-fidelity-death-cult-says-former-dragon-age-producer https://www.pentadact.com/#small

I believe Azure WAF blocked me from logging in while on the VPN, and I keep it on almost at all times due to the UK inclination to leak its residents' data all over the internet.

I have tried it, since I have access to it through Steam Family Sharing (i.e. I did not and would not purchase it purposefully as it is not exactly my genre, so I am not the target audience), but bounced off after the first session, before finishing the first chapter, Childhood/Obscurity. I guess, if you like the setting, it should be fine. The art is a bit worse, the animations are a bit faster. I think something has changed with the writing style but might be misremembering. I have not progressed far enough to see how hard the stat requirements are, but there are 2 extra currencies (Sanity and the blue one) to get around alignment-locked choices (3 pairs of axes). Tried Thirsty Suitors. Liked the music, aesthetic, and the system requirements. Strongly disliked all gameplay systems I've come into contact with - the RPGMaker-style combat, the QTEs, and the wooden controls for skating. Finished Code Zodiac. It was an enjoyable boss rush game in a sci-fi setting. The controls, unfortunately, were unrebindable. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I've spent ~10 minutes turning a boss into a pincushion while sitting on a cliff outside of the arena. The controls are rebindable and the movement is quite satisfying. Naturally, I was mostly sneaking or sprinting (and, surprisingly, swimming). That is, the first post-demo session was fairly story-free.

Jerian This is the demo. This is the release version. I am disappointed and have to recreate my character. Can't quite call a Steam Family-Shared title "free", but it is new and I am curious (and fairly sceptical about it), so forth we go.

Veil of the Witch The Unique Talents are glorious. Factually incorrect. Monsters have 3 rotating weak points. Humans have 1 static (with 1 exception) and tend to die quicker. Took about 4 hours. (Flashback spoiler) I did not expect it to work. Nice. Short of hand-crafted paths, having the RNG'd ones shorter is welcome. Expedition ending slides

"Finished" Veil of the Witch. By that I mean reaching the extended ending and maxing out 1 partnership between a starting and an optional companion. As a part of the game's RNG nature, even the extended ending does taste a bit sour (i.e., there is no resolution for the main conflict, as one of the developers mentioned, it gets resolved off-screen), as well as the mindless grind it becomes, should one wish to get all story-related events or achievements. Still, the first few runs were quite enjoyable and the progress from the original game was stunning. The pacing and the character development within a run are fantastic, though I would love to be able to have guaranteed Unique Skills (which are extremely powerful) alongside the Ultimate Trial difficulty (the highest one). So, I have returned to the original Lost Eidolons which had not finished before starting VotW, and the pacing is significantly poorer - the non-interactive cutscenes take half an hour, the camp activities consist of teleporting from quest marker to quest marker and pressing Interact on the NPCs (there are 2-3 out of dozens conversations that require some cognitive effort and I have already been skipping the small talk dialogue bubbles), and fielding 10 units (5 of whom have only the default attack) leads to drawn out battles where I slowly creep to the boss in the tightest formation I can. From what I have gleaned from the guides, there are some choices in the last 3-4 chapters (out of 26) and I am so, so close.

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is free to keep on Steam until 23 July. While I believe that it is the perfect example why Ren'Py is the best engine for visual novels (Brante uses Unity), it is free and it looks pretty, despite severely lacking the basic QoL features. Edit. The "hardcore RPG" part is not accurate. Save 100% on The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante on SteamA narrative-driven hardcore RPG set in a gritty world ruled by real but unrelenting gods. Set out on a challenging lifetime journey, where every choice has a price and entails consequences. Will you b

I've been playing Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch and it is an amazing improvement over the first game in all aspects. The developers addressed the issues I had with the first Lost Eidolons - they culled the small talk and fetch quests, made the characters distinct and good-looking, and even added helmets and character customisation (granted, only name, gender expression, and skin colour, but it is progress). The combat encounters are also more varied and challenging, while the character skill progression has a good pace. While it is still just a tactical game with a linear story and some optional content, now with RNG in the mix, it is, nonetheless, enjoyable. There are difficulty options, fairly frequent auto-saves (on every area transition, though the OS file management system has to be used for the save file management), rebindable controls, adequate system requirements, and skippable animations. There are also persistent upgrades (most things reset between expeditions due to the game being a Rogue-like) and a limited ability to replay the previous battles. The soundtrack does not seem to have any vocal tracks, but it fits the game well and is quite pleasant to listen to. I have reached the Normal Ending and currently trying to farm for the Completionist one and gather all optional party members. Hopefully, I will be able to achieve both around the same time and within a reasonable time frame (without getting bored).

Kind of, though there are fewer games I am extremely enthusiastic about, rather than "wait for a sale and try". There is also the issue of discoverability when there are a lot of lower quality titles which can hinder the chances of the first-time releases. The successful titles also set the expectations of the "production values", so fewer studios can invest that. Robert Yang has updated Radiator 2 to Radiator Forever. https://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2026/07/radiator-forever-is-gay-as-service-its.html I have found a readable EULA (which does not say that the game's assets belong to the developer) and wanted to share it: https://store.steampowered.com//eula/4517370_eula_0

Thank you for looking into it. The checks seem to be less frequent now.

Retro Abyss All screenshots are fairly close to the end-game. Absinthia Virtue and a Sledgehammer (demo) I chuckled at this and realised that I really do like Saints Row. Naturally, option 5 should have been "Is it a challenge?". Servers are run by ethereal fairies and require no physical infrastructure, of course. The game is very pretty but I find the gap in understanding (like not smoking or breaking electronic devices in a forest) to be enormous. Enthropy (demo) Another very stylish game. The combat, unfortunately, was similar to the RPGMaker.

Not news but an approach I find reasonable: https://www.pentadact.com/2026-01-08-15-years-of-indie-dev-in-4-bits-of-advice/ Admittedly, a large cost sink is the visual assets and VA, while the crowd who can spend several thousands on their hardware are also more likely to have $70 of disposable income, but there are more people with $20. That is to say, the lower the system requirements, including the storage, the better for the production costs, the gamers, and the environment.